Saturday, July 06, 2013

High summer...

Let's see... High summer is upon us. Here's what I've got going on in the garden... eggplants, four or five kinds of hot peppers, lima beans, several kinds of field peas, lots of peanuts, so many sweet potatoes, many large and still productive small-fruited tomatoes, okra. and there's always fruit--my brown Turkey and Alma are still producing a couple fruits a day each, awesome citrus crop in the making, grapes are ripening, bananas may fruit this year, the #%^@$ coons have been messing with my persimmons, but there are still a couple dozen fruits out there.

6 comments:

Love your summer crop. I noticed that one of your tomatoes has cracks along the top. Mine were doing the same thing and I can't figure out what it could be from. I'm thinking it's from a fungal disease, or perhaps the heat is doing this. I live in SW FL, and have been gardening for only a few years, so any advice would be certainly welcome!

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Get the most out of garden space by growing compatible crops. When growing a crop like tomatoes, plant lettuce and spinach in between to grow in the shade of the taller plants. This will maximize the space used in the garden. Also, grow plants which mature at different times alongside each other like carrots and radishes. The radishes will be ready in only thirty days while it takes much longer for the carrots to mature.

Diversify the types of plants you grow in your garden. If you only grow one type of plant in your garden and it gets infected with a disease, your whole garden could be wiped out. Also, if you are only growing tomato plants, remember that just 14 tomato plants can yield a year's supply of tomatoes for two people.

Gardening

When deciding to take up gardening, it is important to study and know your geographical area. Some vegetation simply can't survive a northern winter. Contrarily, some plants can't survive a Texas summer. As such, it is important to know where you are and what the plants that you intend on growing can handle.

In addition to enhancing the appearance of your home with flowers and saving money by growing your own fruits, vegetables and herbs, you now have another reason to take up gardening. Studies have shown that stress and blood pressure levels are significantly reduced when people view nature and plants. Gardening is a great source of pleasure for many people and the end result is one that can help them live a longer, healthier life.

As you can see, growing your own garden, free from the chemicals that other foods contain, is not only easy to do, but you will have a wonderful, healthy crop of food that you can eat yourself, or share with family and friends. Make sure you tell them what they are eating.

I would love to hear your opinion on solarizing soil. Have you ever done this? If so, did you have good results? I also read you recommend mulching your veggies. I have been given advice against mulching. Do you mulch? If so, with what? A recent video reports mulching with Chipped Trees and never plowing will improve all aspects of your garden including, limiting the need for water. Thanks for any advice!Chris

i don't think solarizing is effective--it might work if youre a professional and get everything JUST RIGHT, but a much better way to abate nematodes & pests is just to keep enriching the soil with lots of organic STUFF. whatever you have on hand, pile it up! (that's if you're soil is typical, florida "soil"--overly drained, sandy, poor... you couldnt do this up north.) MULCH MULCH MULCH. it's insane that anyone would advise against it. again, all gardening is local, but, likely, you should mulch, heavily. things break down SO QUICKLY here. an couple of inches of mulch is useful, though you'll have to monitor it carefully--pests can hide out in it, or it can get knocked over seedlings. i rake my mulch regularly to break it up, uncover grubs and slugs, pull it back from the stems of my plants. i don't always have mulch, but when i have it available, i lay it down thick, esp. around well-established veg & fruit.

Last Fall I planted many rows of lettuce which produced over $5 of greens everyday for 3 months. The equivalent of $400. Last Summer my tomatoes produced over 200 lbs, the equivalent of $400. My peppers, herbs, squash, cucumbers, and beans produced the equivalent of $500. In total I produced the equivalent of $1300+ in food from March to October. This year I am hoping to triple or quadruple that amount considering I am growing 125 lbs of potatoes as well. Please visit my blog for pictures of my garden harvests from last year and my progress this year: